To read Chapter 1 click here
Caitlyn
“What the hell, Caitie?”
Josh’s voice was thick with sleep as he tugged at the single blanket. She let him have it. The name grated—Caitie belonged to high school, to better times—but fighting over a blanket wasn’t worth it. Not when she had to be up anyway. It wasn’t like they lived together. It wasn’t even like she’d been his first choice last night.
She crossed the trailer, bare feet silent on the worn linoleum, eyes scanning for her cigarettes. Beer bottles cluttered the glass table, the stale air heavy with the smell of last night. She found the pack, stepped outside, and collapsed onto the metal steps in her mini skirt and ripped AC/DC shirt. The lighter clicked; the first drag burned warm in her lungs.
Twenty-three other trailers ringed the park, each one a mirror of her own. She smirked at the thought—white trailer trash, just like her mother. Different trailer, same story. Cigarette in hand, last night’s mistake still sleeping inside.
“Yup. I’ve made it,” she muttered to no one.
The sun was a faint glow, not yet clear of the horizon. Soon it would be another hot Friday, tourists swarming Saco, Maine. She listened to the growing hum of traffic beyond the cedar hedges—the only thing hiding the park’s “trash” from the rest of downtown.
Movement caught her eye. Across the gravel lot, in front of Jim’s rusted single-wide, a man stood where no man like him should. Sharp suit, polished shoes, hair neat enough to belong in a bank commercial. A sleek black car idled behind him, gleaming in the early light like it had never touched a dirt road. He leaned in close to Jim, talking low, his hands buried in his pockets. Jim nodded too quickly, eyes darting toward the hedges. Caitlyn took another drag, the smoke curling around her face. Whoever he was, he didn’t belong in the park—and whatever he wanted from Jim, it wasn’t neighborly.
To read Chapter 3 click here
Perfectly Imperfect 